Posts: 1 to 25 of 37

Topic: A Very Calvin & Hobbes Christmas

In the Howard the Duck commentary everyone side-tracked to talk about a Calvin & Hobbes film. Remember that? Well, Teague and I made a YouTube thing inspired by that conversation. Only instead of an intentionally terrible video we made one we're proud of. We recreated some of the snowman scenes from the comics. Check it, yo.

People have asked how we made it so here are the broad strokes:

First, every shot is practical and each snowman was built from scratch... and it was all filmed on my dining table.

No single method was used. Some snowmen were playdough, some were wire framed sculptures covered in bake-dry clay, and some were papier-mâché. I tried to keep builds consistent within shots though, i.e. only sculpty or only playdough. The snowmonster was a mix of everything. I papier-mâché a wire-frame, used bake-dry clay for the details like eyes and teeth, and then threw all the sugar and flower CVS would sell me on top of it. Depending on the size of the shot and model either sugar, flour, or a 1:4 mix of both was used. The smaller stuff used flour because it scaled better. Paint the model white and roll it in sugar. Boom. Snowman.

The key to this was patience, a willingness to get my living room very messy (I haven't done arts and crafts since 2nd grade), and copious amounts of sugar.

Oh, and Teague. Yeah, you need Teague to make this happen, like, at all. This is the raw footage he had to make work:

And

He'll have to 'splain exactly what he did. It's all witchcraft to me but I know Adobe was involved. Always with the Adobe.

Besides the VFX, another key aspect was lighting. And that's a whole thing. At any given moment I'd have between 8-12 lights focused on the set. And dozens of lil' LED flashlights hiding behind models for that coolish-blue backlight.

That's what we did in a nutshell. All the snowmen were practical models that were cleaned, sexied-up, and covered in falling snow by Teague and his fantastic computer device.

Anyway, here's me talking to a lump of sugar at 4am.

Last edited by iJim (2013-10-27 06:16:46)

Everybody, get up. It's time to slam now. We got a real jam going down. Welcome to the Space Jam. Here's your chance. Do your dance. At the Space Jam. Alright?

Re: A Very Calvin & Hobbes Christmas

Re: A Very Calvin & Hobbes Christmas

This is the second time I've collaborated with Jim; the first time was the video on the homepage, and the third time is about to be Sad Max, and at this point I'm a pretty big fan of the guy. I did color correction, touch-up, and snowiness. Mostly in After Effects, with some Lightwave and Boujou here and there for the odd shot that needed something crazy. Rig removal. Etc..

Here's a before and after of the group shot, for instance. Lots of little tweaks and custom shading, plus the snow and the Coke polar bear commercial color style.

Also, if you're a lurker checking out the how-we-made-it, check out the homepage for the last thing Jim made, also with some help from me and the entire Down in Front community. Also, hey, listen to a podcast. Pick a movie you love, or hate, and press play. We're not crappy.

Re: A Very Calvin & Hobbes Christmas

Re: A Very Calvin & Hobbes Christmas

Beautiful job, guys, and it makes me think Calvin & Hobbes needs to come back in a new medium. What surprised me was that it wasn't CG animation. Shows you where my head's at these days of everything except Aardman being CG.

Re: A Very Calvin & Hobbes Christmas

The real question is, will this bring any influx to the Down In Front community and listeners to the actual movie commentary podcast itself (or the intermission?)

The cynical side of me says no, because wonderful as this C&H thing is, it's too tangential to the core thing being done at Down In Front to have fans coming in based of that becoming fans of the show.

Now, new visitors, go ahead and prove me wrong. Down In Front is a fantastic podcast if you are even a little bit into movies.

Re: A Very Calvin & Hobbes Christmas

Red, Jimmy, Drew, Gareth - Thanks!

Dean - We were crossing our fingers that it could stand alone and still appeal to some non-C&H fans. So it's great to read that. But since you dug it, you should probably check out some of the strips. Stuff is hilarious.

Harbin - After the failure of A Very Calvin and Hobbes Boxing Day, we're on a C&H hiatus.

Everybody, get up. It's time to slam now. We got a real jam going down. Welcome to the Space Jam. Here's your chance. Do your dance. At the Space Jam. Alright?